


Shelter

by thebeingunknown



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Bay Movies), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Love, Character Study, Good Older Sibling Leonardo (TMNT), Hurt Michelangelo (TMNT), Protective Leonardo (TMNT)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28317747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebeingunknown/pseuds/thebeingunknown
Summary: After a long night and startling defeat during patrol on account of the Foot, Mikey seeks out comfort from one of his brothers.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 50





	Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me about the things you liked or things that could be worked on in a comment!

Living the kind of life Michaelangelo and his brothers lead is, and never will, be easy. It's dangerous. It's stressful. Regularly, all are made to fear for themselves and those dear to them. Even in their home, they never could quite feel safe. The risk of discovery is always there. There's the threat the Shredder and his progeny, and beings from other worlds and realities entirely. Their life is hard. There are few securities and even fewer constants. After so long, your neck becomes sore from watching your back.

It's the little things in life—the very few never-changing things in his ever-changing world that Mikey can hold onto. Those are his brothers and his father. He could not count his home as one; reading between the lines of their collective journey, the five of them, revealed that despite how long they'd lived there, material items meant nothing, and one day, it might have to be left behind. But, he had let that go a long while back. There was no choice than to accept that fact. 

Some nights are fun, with his brothers. Him against the world and feeling freedom the shadow allowed him, moving above and below all those people he'd once sought to connect with. Deep down, he still does, really. 

But some nights, Mikey is tired. He's exhausted. This body of his, the heaviness. He seeks comfort from the external. He cannot find it inside, sometimes. It's easier to search outwardly than to peer inside yourself and through all the muck to find what you're looking for on these nights of absolute exhaustion. That's okay. 

So he finds his brother, any one will do—and the one he finds is Leonardo, still up reading while everyone was meant to be asleep. He is strict about his sleep routine, but after such an intense outing, he can't relax. 

Leo hears him come in and looks up from his book. He sees his youngest brother, tired and weary and yet even through his aching body, found his way out of bed and to him. He doesn't ask if Mikey is okay. Sleepless nights aren't abnormal. 

Ambling by, Mikey steps softly to the sofa, watching Leo go back to his book. The night patrol leading up to this was a frightening defeat. The four were forced to retreat back to home, beaten and bloodied, and Mikey particularly battered, though Raph had tried to protect him. He doesn't hold it against him, because he tried, and that was all Mikey could ask for. 

He knows what he needs and is not unsettled to admit that he is one for touch, to be held and handled gently. It's a counter-pressure to the harshness of the other parts of his life. The fighting, defending parts. Just something soft compared the callousness of the other things. But it's not all rough and bad; it's moments like these when he approaches his brother and doesn't even have to say anything for him to know what to do, and suddenly finds himself in the protective arms of someone he trusts so much. Being the youngest is sometimes a downer, but it's these things that make him thankful for an older brother. For three big brothers. 

Neither Mikey nor Leo utters a word as they stand in comfortable silence. Mikey does not even wrap his arms around him. Leo doesn't expect him to. He instead lets him relinquish any and all responsibility to act, whether it be moving or thinking or anything. There's shelter here. He lets him listen to his breath, and feel his lungs expanding and compressing. Mikey doesn't need to speak. 

He always speaks, but sometimes, he too needs a moment of still quiet. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I just feel like Mikey isn't given much attention in the most recent installments of the TMNT franchise from 2012 onward. They never really delve into his inner workings like they do the other three, but more specifically, Leo and Raph. Even Donnie isn't treated with the same amount care about his layers as a character. This is just something I imagine to go through Mikey's head sometimes.


End file.
